U by Kotex - Review

My sweet little girl is growing up. Today we’re going out to get her bras & summer clothes. Pretty soon we’ll be dealing with all the other issues that come up as a girl becomes a woman. I have tried to talk to Darly about this and it has been awkward. I know that Darly is embarrassed and uncomfortable. I remember how “the talk” with my own mom went. I’ve tried to make it much better, but we’ll see. I’ve tried to use humor to ease the tension so I’m making sure to…
“Be prepared, be prepared,
This lesson must be shared,
This lesson must be shared,
Be prepared!”

Sorry for the Hoodwinked song there…

In an effort to “Be prepared” and to help young women feel less embarrassed, Kotex launched U, a new line of tampons, pads and liners, which feature a slim, thinner design, making them easier and more comfortable to use. And with bright, bold packaging and colors, girls don't need to send their Mom to Walmart for them or feel embarrassed the next time the conversation comes up with their friends. 

They’ve also set up a website http://www.ubykotex.com/ where you can order free samples of the new U by Kotex line, now available at Walmart stores around the country. For more information, and to download a fun Daily Journal iPhone or iTouch application that lets you take pictures, add play lists and geo-target your location for each entry, visit www.walmart.com/ubykotex.  And, if you haven’t seen the hilarious new commercials, you can check out some of our favorites like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09SejxpcFA.

I think I’ve done an okay job with our talk.  One of the books that Darly read is "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" so our running joke is if she needs any "teenage softies."  We have U products on hand and I'm sure she'll let me know when she needs more.  I remember that even though I wasn’t all that impressed with the job my mom did, I was prepared.

 “I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Kotex and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Old London Melba Toast - Review

Okay I'm probably totally showing how old I am again...but back when I was a little girl we would sometimes go out to restaurants where they would have a basket of crackers on the tables. Anyone remember those?

Now days when you go out you're lucky if the place brings the basket of crackers with your soup or salad...most places give you just a packet or two of saltines with your soup or salad. :P

But if you're lucky and get the basket my favorite thing to do is see if they have Melba Toast in the basket (some places still have a variety of crackers to choose from!) I just love Melba Toast. It's just so yummy and crunchy! Much better than a cracker.

So I was so excited to find out that I had the chance to try out some new flavors of Melba Toast. So excited in fact that I ran out to my grocery store to look for them and bought a box. I didn't know that you could just buy Melba Toast in the store! *blush* Before I was always just hunting for them in restaurants.


I scarfed down my box of Melba Toast and they were as yummy as I always remember. I tried them with all sorts of stuff and "lookie!" the Melba Toast folks even came up with some nifty recipes you can try to have with your Melba Toast! They awesome just right out of the box too...and lucky for me a serving is only 50 calories. In fact I had to go grab my box so I could munch some while I'm trying to type out this post. LOL

Another cool thing is the folks at Old London Melba Toast are currently running a promotion. It is called ‘Dance Your Way to Hollywood’ http://www.toastforeverydayhealth.com/dance/. Here’s some information about it from the website:

“Dance Your Way to Hollywood” will send one lucky winner and a guest to Tinseltown for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, including private dance lessons and tickets to watch the taping of a highly popular television show. The four-day, three-night, all-expenses-paid experience includes air travel and accommodations at a popular Hollywood hotel. Sweepstakes entries accepted March 17 through June 30, 2010.”

While you're signing up for the contest...check out the other cool links on the website about staying healthy and keeping fit.

okay I better go put away my box of Melba Toast before I scarf them all up. Mffpthh muh yummm he he

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Old London Melba Toast and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Party time

Darly's birthday was this week, so that means we had to have a party for her (I think it's a law somewhere or something like that!)

Monday we went to the American Girl Doll store and she picked out a few things that she wanted.  My credit card took another major hit!

The party was to be a sleep over of course because maximum playtime is a major requirement.  However, I had a few requirements of my own...namely that Darly help clean up HER MESS that oozes all over my house!  Alas, Darly is the queen of procrastination and she left all cleaning for the very last minutes (why clean it now since it will just get dirty again?  save it for right before so there's less time to make it messy again!)  You can see my eyes rolling - right?

Darly's one friend DJ's mom needed some errands run and the logistics of it meant that it would work out better for her if DJ came to the party early.  DJ LOVES to clean, so this was a good thing!  DJ came over and vacuumed my house!  WOW!  I love this kid!

Darly volunteered to dust the house...ummm she would FAIL a white glove test as there are huge areas of dust she didn't get at all.  Good thing her friends are not neat freaks.  sigh!

I'm not sure why Darly thought it would be best to save baking and decorating her cake (she's a budding cake decorator, so she has to do it herself!!!) for the party day would be a good idea.  She said something about worried it would dry out and I couldn't convince her otherwise.  So Darly & DJ bake the cake.  Darly has this idea for the design of her cake, but unfortunately that didn't turn out so well, so instead they smashed all the cake back into the cake pan and left it.

I started baking the pizzas and cheese bread, set the timer and then needed to bring down a table from upstairs.  By the time I got the table down, the timer on the pizzas went off and I didn't hear it.  Neither did the girls.  The pizzas were overdone...still very edible, but over done.  sigh!

The kids played and had a great time, but Darly's carefully planned out schedule was out the window!  I kept asking "aren't you supposed to be watching a movie now?"  The first movie didn't start until after 9pm and two movies were planned.

One of the girls had a soccer game this morning, so she needed to be picked up at 8:30am.  I woke up after 7am and hurried downstairs to get the waffles made so she could eat before rushing out.  I don't know why, but every single waffle stuck to the iron.  I've never had that happen before (ooh that reminds me that I need to clean up that mess!)  So the girls ate waffle skins.  They tasted good, but so not waffles.

Soccer gal's dad didn't come to get her until after 9am though.  I'm not so sure he was up when we called him.  he he!

but even with all the goofs the girls are having a great time, I have no idea where they're playing right now, probably the very messy basement.  sigh!

I NEED A NAP!

A Kitchen MeMe

Ladybug had this meme on her blog and I'm borrowing it because it's fun!

1. Do you have magnets on your fridge? I do. TONS! Dh thinks I have too many.

2. Do you have a calendar in your kitchen, if so, what’s the theme of it? I actually have two calendars in the kitchen. One is a week by week on the frig (one of the many magnets) and the other is from Williamsburg VA.

3. What is your favorite kitchen gadget? I think the one I use most is my waffle iron/griddle. It has 4 changeable plates so you can have waffles, grilled cheese or grill meats.

4. Are you lucky enough to have a pantry of some kind? Yes, I need to clean it.

5.What is your favorite appliance? My range. I am just in love with the double oven!


6. Do you have an eat in kitchen (table in it)? Yes we do, but when I was a kid we had the eat in kitchen and NEVER used the dining room. So to prevent that I ordered that we at least have dinner in the dining room every night. Now the kitchen table is a catch all cuz we hardly use it.

7. Do you have a bread box? no

8. Do you have a picture of your kids on the fridge? Yes. She's on the side.


9. Do you ever cook breakfast in your PJs? Who doesn't?

10. Do you have a favorite cookbook that you use? I have many. I think I use my Cheyenne Frontier Days cookbook the most.

11. Are you lucky enough to have recipes that were passed down from your mom or grandma? Yes. and I have one from my grandmother that she intentionally gave me graciously with missing information. I told my mom that I had gotten it and she looked at it and said "this isn't her recipe!" :( Stinker! So now I use one I found online that is very similar. My brothers don't know the difference.

12. What’s your favorite food? Steak.

13. What’s your favorite thing to cook? Anything quick and yummy.

14. Is your coffee pot electric or stove top? Electric, does anyone use stove top anymore?

15. Do you ever make your own bread? Once in a blue moon. I'm not into baking.

16. Name one thing that you have hanging on your wall in your kitchen: There isn't actually a lot of wall space in my kitchen, and what there is is covered in cabinets. But I do have a cinnamon broom hanging over the pantry door. It lost it's scent a long time ago.


17. Is there a clock in your kitchen? YES! One on the stove, one on the microwave and one on my radio.

18. Do you have a bowl of fruit sitting on your table or counter? No, it would go bad too quickly here.

19. What type of canisters do you have? I have ones that match my stoneware.

20. Does your kitchen have a theme? It matches my stoneware.

21. What’s for supper tonight? Pizza.

22. Do you have enough cabinet space? Yes... But I could use some better organization.

23. Does your family use paper plates? A lot!

24. Do you have a good set of china? Yes, I don't use it very often as it likes to be hand washed.

25. Do you wear an apron to work in your kitchen? nope. I have one, but never wear it.

26. Name one thing, if anything, that you would like to change about your kitchen. The entire thing. The sink needs to be replaced but I want an under the counter mount...which means new counter tops...and since we're doing the counter tops, how about new cabinets with better organization?

WThey? This can't be safe!

as you know I bought a new car this past summer. One of the really cool things that came with my car is the SYNC powered by Microsoft. A lot of the SYNC features are really cool, like being able to toss my purse in the back seat with the phone and still answer or make calls...not that I actually do that very often! I usually don't touch my phone at all when I'm in the car, but having the car answer it has been pretty cool. My friend says that the microphone is really good and when she's talking to me from it, it just sounds as if I were talking on the phone in the car.

One good feature of this was the day of my MIL's funeral. My BIL called us while we were waiting in the cemetery for our turn to use the "grave side" pavilion. (they don't have actual grave side service at this cemetery) So BIL calls us and everyone in the car was able to chat with him while we waited. I bet he thought I was holding up my phone. lol

anyway one of the BAD features of SYNC is the pre-set Vehicle Health Report. According to my handbook this was supposed to be something that I could choose to set, but someone set it before I bought the car. Imagine if you will... you're driving down the interstate in rush hour traffic...concentrating on the road...


"*BING!* IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RUN A VEHICLE HEALTH REPORT PRESS OK!"

what?  who in their right mind thought that having this thing come on while you're driving would be a good idea?  I ignored it the first time and it has since come on twice while DH was driving...the last time we all screamed NO! at it.  lol 

I dug out the manual and see that I can turn this off...YAY!  but like I mentioned before, someone turned it on.  I wonder who?  Oh well, I'll shut the darned thing off so I don't cause an accident now.

My American Girl Doll store experience

This weekend was the Grand Opening of American Girl Place in Denver. The link I just put there says that the wait to get into the store was 3 hours long... ummm not QUITE! The article also estimates the crowd in the hundreds... I don't think that's very accurate either.

My friend planned to get to the store at 4am to wait. I wasn't quite that "gung-ho" so we planned to be at the store at 5am instead. We wanted to get there early because the first 100 girls in the store would get a gift bag.

I woke up at 3:50am and took my shower. Darly had set her alarm clock, so I knew she would be up soon.

Since I knew my friend was already supposed to be there, I sent an email to her iphone account and waited to see how it was going. She let me know that there were already more than 100 people in line. YIKES!

Well seeing as we were NOT going to get a gift bag, it seemed like a good idea to just wait at home where it was warm instead of going to the store and waiting in the snow storm (YES, it was 30 degrees and snowing out at that hour). So when Darly got up I let her know how we didn't get there early enough for the gift bag.

She agreed that warm was better but asked if her friend would let her know what was in the gift bag...and of course she would (she blogs too!)

So we left the house at 7:45 (which annoyed Darly) and at last check in with my friend who was freezing her butt off in the cold there were already over 1000 folks waiting with her.

When we arrived at the mall and found parking, we walked toward the store. I could already see that the line of folks extended past the section of the mall that included the store. Hopefully I'll be able to use the Mall's directory to show you just how bad the line was.

I soon located a mall security person and asked where the end of the line was. He pointed in the general direction and told me that there would be another security person over there that I could ask. We found the second security person and he directed us to the end of the line. The end was in front of the Eddie Bauer store which is where the B is on the map. The time was 8:15am. The store wasn't supposed to open until 9am.

I called my friend to see if she had any info because I knew that the store couldn't possibly hold more than a hundred or so folks. She let me know that they were told the number was 130. sigh...we were in for a wait.

so after the store actually opened we moved from the second curve in front of Eddie Bauer to the first curve.

It was so much fun to watch other families arrive and the shock on their face to see how long the line actually was. Darly & I had not gone to the front of the line so we didn't know how much snakeing there was by the front but I knew it had to be pretty bad. When we got there they were just adding the "cow ropes" to the section we were waiting in...I don't believe that the mall had any idea just how many folks were going to show up for this. Starbucks was doing VERY WELL that morning.

I think it was about 10:30 when we got to the part of the line that was close enough to the bathrooms that we risked taking turns with the family ahead of us and going to the bathroom...to warm up a bit and of course go potty.

When we finally got to the section of line that is in the actual Vistas section of the mall we figured that we were finally getting down to the end. LOL, not quite.

It was almost 1:30 pm by the time we got into the store. Yup, that's right...we waited for 5 hours to get into the store. But since we had come all that way and waited all that time Darly deserved more than just the book mark that she was able to make...so I allowed her to get some stuff for her dolls (which stayed home for this trip, they can come next time!) She picked out some cute stuff and we headed to lunch.

As we were leaving we ran into a mom and her daughter in the parking lot that had just then arrived. I guess they were hoping to avoid the crowd. LOL! They asked how long the wait was...I told them we had waited 5 hours and I expected that the line now was at least 3 hours long. Mom didn't want to wait, daughter was heart broken.

speaking of heart broken... we saw more than one fit as a child was disappointed that her parents were not willing to wait that long.

Darly has pledged her undying love for me for sticking with it. She STILL owes me a clean bedroom though.

email

Just sharing a bit of my morning. We picked this house because it was close enough to the base that DH could get to and from work easily, but it was far enough away that we would avoid "MOST" of the air traffic. However, some days...
-----Original Message-----
> From: RENEE > Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 9:04 AM
> To: DH@work
> Subject: why so close?

> Hi Dear,
> why are the jets flying so close to the house this morning? Or do you know?
>
> Love
> Renee
---------------------------
To: renee
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:12:27 -0500
Subject: RE: why so close?
>

> Hi Dear, Don't know. Commercial or Military?
I can speculate...they are probably avoiding weather.
Going around the weather. If they are flying visual, they are avoiding clouds.

>

> Love,

> DH
-----Original Message-----

it sounded like a military jet, but I didn't bother to look.
It was fast, so I'm thinking military.
ah low clouds probably explains it.
tell them to fly above the clouds next time please. ;o)
they wake folks trying to sleep here.



Love

Renee
-------------------------
Yah,I can't believe they are so rude. With these weather conditions (humidity, clouds, moisture, etc.) the sound travels better, so it can appear louder too.

Love,
DH

Daily Mile

Hey did you notice the new Widget on my blog?  It's right over there <--  it's my Daily Mile.  I'm hoping that this thing helps me to stay motivated...cuz I really really really need to fit in my old summer clothes.  It has been quite the bummer that my old clothes are getting too snug and so I want to do something to help me loose some inches.


So far I haven't seen any difference.  In fact I found that when I tried to wear some of my new bigger jeans they were too tight!  YIKES!  this isn't good.

So my goal is to do something each day.  I have a buddy who will go out walking with me.  So hopefully at least 2 times per week we'll head out there and clock in at least 4 miles of walking.  I may also drag my hubby with me to get in another walk on the weekend.

Right now our biggest detterent is the weather, which is why I've been taking advantage of our elliptical trainer.  When I walk outside it takes me longer to do 4 miles, but outside has hills and stuff.  The elliptical only takes me about 30 min to do...but when I get to that point right now I'm bushed.  So I guess that's a good thing.  Hopefully I'll work my way up again to do the elliptical longer and clock in more miles and then be able to add more mileage to my outdoor walks too.

WHAT A CROCK!

I don't exactly remember when I first noticed the messages running across the top of my TV screen at the top of each hour, but I've been seeing for a while now that my cable company is going to upgrade it's system to all digital and I may not get my TV channels unless I contact them.

So today I finally went online to see what all the hub bub is about.  And low & behold it's much ado about nothing!  See we only have cable TV because without it you don't get TV here at all!  This is the first home we've had where we actually paid for cable.  We don't believe in paying for TV...especially since "isn't that what advertising is for?"  I remember the days when the cable channels didn't have ANY ads on them...because we paid for them.  Where did that go???  HUH???

So to that end we only have the very cheapest, and basic cable package.  When we first signed up for it, the cost was only $13 per month.  It has now risen to $17ish.  And we are happy with what we get, just not with paying for it.  But alas we cannot do without TV so we pay.

Back to the notice on my TV.  It turns out that only customers who have the Expanded Basic cable have to worry.  They will loose their extra channels if they don't order the adapter box.

This company has been nagging, annoying and trying to scare us into buying more expensive cable since we first signed up for it.  And I know for a lot of people these tactics work because I know someone who ordered the more expensive package.  I think this is wrong!  Especially when they go after folks who really should be spending the money that they have on more important things...like perhaps the electricity to run the TV.  sigh

Bible reading

no wait! You'll get a giggle out of this one!

http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Trust me!

oh and you might want your kittehs to NOT read Genesis 6!

Forgiven!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F9z54g30Eo

I wanted to embed the video but it isn't available yet. But this is a really cool song. The "video" is just a slide show, so unless you would like to learn the lyrics, I would just open up another window to look at something while you listen to it.

Smoking rant!

okay all you smokers out there... I'm about to tear into you and if you don't like it...I'm not sorry about it.

I'm really sick of you all! (that includes you too mom! actually double for you!)

I just don't get it. It costs a lot of money to smoke. You're not allowed to smoke inside any buildings. You stink, it makes you sick and could kill you. Yet you do it anyway. If you buy a car and smoke in it, you've lowered it's value for if you want to resell it. If you buy a house and smoke in it, you've just either lowered it's value or totally cut your buyer population by a huge number. If you have children, you're making them sick too...even if you don't smoke around them because the smoke is in your clothes.

Every time you drive down the road and toss a butt out you earn the scorn of every non-smoker on the road. A friend of mine told me that once her car's fan sucked up the lit butt of a cigarette that someone from the car in front of her had tossed out and it was blown into her car! But of course the smoker never knew that! Tossed butts can also end up flying into open windows on other cars. If I'm stopped at a red light your second hand smoke will enter my car. But you don't care!

Note to my mother... YOU HAVE COPD! This WAS caused by your smoking! Your chronic bronchitis and pneumonia WERE caused by smoking. This WILL kill YOU! However, if you stopped smoking your lungs would heal and you would have a better quality of life for what you have left. Who knows, you might even get well enough to start working again and get off disability. You wouldn't be stuck at home all day bored out of your head. I know that you don't care if you die early from this, but did you really want to be stuck at the house bored out of your mind all day??? REALLY??? In case you haven't noticed, your kids do care if you die early from this.

I do realize this is an addiction. There are many many ways to stop smoking out there. But you have to stop because you want to. What does it take to make you want to?

Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! :D

Now that I have your attention ;o) Hummm do I have mine?

My good friend Marsi and I were just chatting last night about getting some coffee together on Monday. And now that I think about it, we just grabbed a coffee and went antique shopping on Saturday. It seems that sometimes our lives just revolve around when we’ll get our next coffee fix. Honestly, I think for me it’s an appreciation for the flavor of the coffee more than an actual addiction to the caffeine. I don’t drink nearly as much as I hear that most of my friends do. (okay, maybe that’s a fib!)

When it comes to what makes a good cup of coffee, I’m sure we all have our different opinions. I know there are many out there who just love a good cup from that one coffee place (you know the one I’m talking about!) but honestly, for me I prefer to make up my coffee at home. I make it just how I like it and I don’t have to continue monkeying around with it.

The folks over at © The Coffee Growers Federation of Colombia - 100% Colombian Coffee – 2010 know what it takes to make a great cup of coffee. You can’t make a great cup of coffee unless you start with great beans! I guess that’s why there are so many brands of coffee that are 100% Colombian!
By visiting www.whatsbehindthebest.com, you'll have the opportunity to learn about the philosophy behind 100% Colombian Coffee and enter to win great prizes. The grand prize is $10,000! There are also weekly prizes of 100% Colombian Coffee…YUM!

The small print… In exchange for this post I was entered to win a supply of 100% Colombian Coffee and the $100 American Express gift card from The Coffee Growers Federation of Colombia and Mom Select.

If you are interested in participating in future MomSelect sponsored events and programs, register at MomSelect.com

Sorry, sorry, sorry

I know I've been a bad blogger. I've been reading blogs but I haven't posted anything.

Excuses, yeah, I've got lots...but you don't want to hear that. right?

Those of you who follow my rants blog know that I haven't been ranting about anything either. and that's a good thing, I haven't had much to vent about at all...things have been going rather well since the funeral.

DH's health is doing really well. The docs are still worried about him getting blood clots, but his last sonogram showed no clots at all (although the tech wasn't supposed to tell dh that.) The docs still have him on blood thinners though, but at least I don't have to give him any shots (speaking of, I should call the pharmacy and let them know we don't need the shots!) LOL

Darly is doing well. We haven't reached the halfway point to her goal for selling Girl Scout cookies and I don't think that we will, but that's okay. We had a lot of obstacles this year for cookie selling. We weren't here for initial order taking so many of our neighbors bought from someone else. We switched Churches so our main buyers weren't available to us anymore, and it was very cold out to try to hit up new neighbors. We have a cookie booth this weekend, so perhaps we make up for it then.

She is still doing well in gymnastics...although I see that her desire isn't quite there...she really wanted to be on TEAM and there aren't any TEAM opportunities for her right now. I'm a bit miffed...I asked about her getting on TEAM and they told us not until June, but then the next class to try to get the girls to behave they told them that if they wanted to be on TEAM they had to listen to their coaches. Darly always behaves. So it was a speech for the others. But it makes it seem as if the only reason she isn't on team is because of the behavior. poor kid I should ask about USAG. She really needs to be pushed again.

I've been running around (when I'm not playing games on facebook) doing Girl Scouts, homeschooling and Church stuff.

Yesterday our Church met for the first time in one of our member's homes. They have a really large home with a HUGE basement that they aren't using. The space is awesome and with a bit of tweaking will make a great worship space. I've offered to help with the financial tracking, so I've been bringing my computer with me...yesterday it decided to be a spaz I think that DH messed up my battery on it. ugh.

hummm that's about all I know to tell you.

DH is so funny...

email convo between me & DH this morning...

-----Original Message-----
> From: RENEE
> Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 8:14 AM
> To: DH@work
> Subject: furnace

Hi Dear,

I was sitting here at the computer freezing my butt off and wondered if it was just cuz I was by the door or if the furnace was acting up again... it's the furnace again.

Is there any chance you could have your co-worker HVAC guy come by sometime soon and take a look at it, purty please?

I don't like to be cold.

Thanks!
Love you!
Renee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: DH@work
> To: RENEE
> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:48:48 -0600
> Subject: RE: furnace

Hi Dear,

They are all off today for the Holiday! I can reset it. Note: If it seems to be getting cold... check the thermostat. :)

Love,
DH

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To: DH@work
From: Renee

You so funny!

Love,
Renee

~~~~~~~~~~~~
To: Renee
From: DH@work

I know :)

DH

Happy Birthday DH!

Today is my dear husband's 47th birthday. I had picked up a prime rib roast when it was on sale last month and just tucked it in the freezer to save it for this day.

Then we had all the other things that happened over the last 4 weeks!

So on Monday I asked DH if he wanted to include his siblings in his birthday celebration. DH didn't think that any of them would be in town yet...so he said no. Whew! I didn't have to figure something else out for dinner. So I started thawing the roast.

Wednesday night we learned that BIL #2 and SIL #2 had arrived in town. But no mention was made of any plans changing.

I went grocery shopping on Thursday and picked up a few things that we needed, but pretty much planned on just the 3 of us for dinner tonight and then that our friends would bring us meals for the next few days. Thanks Friends! You're all totally awesome!

Last night, as DH was getting ready for bed he comes back downstairs and asks me if he should invite his brother & sister to dinner. I smile at him and mention that I had asked him about this already...he totally forgot that conversation. I told him it's his birthday...he gets to choose.

So he calls them...and guess what? They were on the way back from the airport with SIL #1!!! Well, might as well invite her too! So now the roast that was supposed to feed 3 of us for two nights will be stretched to feed 6 of us for just the one night. I have to go back to the store to get more potatoes because DH didn't want potato casserole (that I have on hand already), but I should pick up some more stuff to drink anyway.

I get to scurry and clean the house and hide all the clutter in my kitchen, change out the table cloth cuz the Christmas table cloth is still on the table. LOL! and run the dishwasher so we have plenty of clean silverware. FUN!

The funniest part of all of this is that I don't think that DH's siblings remember that today is his birthday. I could hear his sister when they were on the phone and she was surprised that we were having prime rib for dinner.

In case you're wondering... right around Christmas the grocery stores will put all the foods that folks make for Christmas dinner on sale. Ham is usually cheapest, but turkey and prime rib go on sale then too. I can usually get a two bone roast for around the price of 1 prime rib dinner out at a restaurant. Since I can make that feed all 3 of us for 2 nights, I figure that's a pretty good deal.

We're also having baked potatoes & asparagus with this dinner. and I'm making some French bread too.

hopefully in all the madness, I get DH's birthday presents wrapped.

MIL RIP

Lucy Nefe
(Died February 4, 2010)

Littleton, CO, formerly of Frankenmuth, MI
Passed away Thursday, February 04, 2010 at home in Frankenmuth, age 75 years. Lucy Trinklein was born on July 11, 1934 in Frankenmuth, MI. She was married to Donald J. Nefe on August 29, 1953, he preceded her in death in September 2000. When living in Frankenmuth, Lucy was employed by Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. She was presently a member of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church and a previous member of St. Lorenz Lutheran Church where she served as President of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League.

Surviving are 2 daughters and 3 sons, 13 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, 2 sisters and 1 brother and many nieces and nephews.

Besides her husband Lucy was preceded in death by a brother, Bennie Trinklein.

Funeral services will take place at 2:00 P.M. Sunday, February 7, 2010 at St. Lorenz Lutheran Church, Rev. Joel Kaiser will officiate. Lucy’s family will receive visitors on Sunday at the church from 12:00 noon until the time of service. Burial will take place at a later time in Denver , CO. Services in Denver will be at Abiding Hope Lutheran Church.

Livin off frig finds...

sorry if this post bores you, but I'm proud of myself here and wanted to toot my own horn.

While we were at BIL's house in Michigan most of our meals were provided by the rest of the family.  They have this agreement that BIL provides MIL's care and they (both SIL's and their families) stop by with meals to take care of him.  It works out really well, but there were a few nights where I did have to come up with something for dinner.  And it seemed that on those nights the family stopped by too (they were figuring on having to go back to get something and surprised that I had already made something).  So this is kind of where my "livin off frig finds" story begins.

When we got there I noticed that my one SIL doesn't really keep track of what foods are already at BIL's house.  She just comes up with a menu and brings over the items she needs to make it.  That means that BIL's pantry is pretty well overstocked with some foods that won't get eaten.

So the first night I found a package of chicken in the frig and baked it up with some rice and veggies.  SIL came over that night and was surprised that it tasted so good for being so simple.  I guess they're into really doing up chicken.  Oh well, everyone liked it.

A few nights later I decided after finding 4 boxes of Taco shells in the pantry to make some tacos.  So before heading to the store I dug deeper into the pantry and found taco seasoning and in the frig/freezer I found ground beef, cheese and sour cream.  All I needed from the store was lettuce and tomatoe (I bought some more salsa cuz we like the medium kind.)  I found out that two of the boxes of taco shells had been left open and were brought over from MIL's house...blech!  those went into the trash.  But that still left two boxes that were fine.  I made up some more rice to go with and we all had a great dinner again.

Once we got back home the frig was pretty empty.  That was on purpose so that I didn't come home to a frig full of mold.  I didn't want to go to the grocery store on the weekend because it's a mad house and I don't like shopping with all that stress (I get annoyed by all the folks blocking my way.)  So I had to see what we had here to eat...
For our first dinner I pulled out some spaghetti w/ sauce that I had made a large batch of and froze half of it.  That fed us for two nights.  YAY!  Then I decided that an inventory of what was in the freezer would be a good idea before hitting the grocery store.  In there I found three zip lock bags filled with ham from our Christmas dinner.  In the pantry we still had some potatoes and in the frig was a brick of cheddar cheese.  Ah another dinner!

I peeled and sliced the potatoes, cooked them in salted water and added about a cup & a half of diced ham to heat it through and hopefully give some hammy flavor to the potatoes.  Then I made a white sauce and added cheese to it until it tasted yummy.  I poured the cheese sauce over the potatoes and ham.  Then cooked veggies on the side.  Another two nights worth of dinner and I still don't have to go to the grocery store.

However, I will go to the store today because tomorrow we're going a play and I won't have time.

Update on DH

more from my Facebook...

Jan 19 
went to the hospital early today (normally I don't get there until 2pm) and DH had a great day. They knocked his O2 down to 2.5 ltrs per min and he was still able to keep his sat level at 95. So they finally let him walk, but at 4 ltrs O2...he did really well and stayed above 90.

Jan 20

DH is getting so much better that he might go home very soon (I don't want to jinkx it*). They asked today about an address to set up delivery of O2 (to support DH's habbit). Today they walked him w/o the O2 and he held at 93%!!!! YAY! Woo Hoo! He's now in the shower, his first shower since the 12th! :D (he's had sponge baths)  *They had talked to me about ordering O2 delivered to us for his release the next day.  But since I hadn't heard this from the doctor, I didn't want to go posting that he was being released only to have it not happen.

Jan 21

as soon as his paperwork is done we can go home! No more O2 either. They're cutting off his habbit. ;o) Because he had to take all his records back to CO with him we had to wait for the doctor to finish transcribing them and then for all the lab work to be sent up and copied also...that was 95 pages!  We got back to BIL's house around 4pm.

Jan 22

last night was rough. He was in a lot of pain. I think that they had him on painkillers in the hospital and he just didn't realize it because the onset of the pain was right about the right time for them to wear off. He slept on the recliner so that I wouldn't kill him, but got cold. I gave him hot chocolate and he's sleeping peacefully again. ugh! That means at least another day before we can fly home.  DH was actually raring to go home that day but I refused to let him fly in that much pain.

Jan 23

is finally home again...but I'm sure tired. course for me it's now midnight even though the clock reads 10pm.  It took some doing, but DH finally arranged flights home for us.  We had to pay extra for them though.  So while DH was on the phone he called the airlines and when I got out I asked/stated "I need to pack, don't I?" and he said yes.  Our flight left Detroit at 4:10pm and we touched down in Denver at 4:50pm.  gotta love those time zones!

Our first night home was a bit rough as DH was in pain again.  So he slept in and stayed home while I went to get Lilly and went to our Church planning meeting.  It was so great to see everyone from Church who had been praying for us while we were gone.  They were so happy to get the report that DH was home and doing well.

 

Last night, DH finally admitted that it might be a good idea to take a pain killer (thank goodness!)  He slept really really well and so did I!  YAY!  Now to get Darly over her head cold!  I got her some Sudafed for the flight which was such a good idea.  I'm going to make sure we take it from now on when we fly!!!  But she doesn't want any more of it!  LOL!  I don't blame her.

 

not a good update...

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything in a while.  That's mostly because I've been on Facebook and also because we've had a bit of an emergency here.  Let me fill you in...

On Jan 6th at about 9pm or so, DH started feeling pains in his chest on the left side...but he didn't tell anyone about it.  He went to bed and at about 11:30 he finally asked for me to come and help him.  At about 1:30am we went to the ER.

Tests were run and they determined that DH "probably" had pleuracy, but they couldn't be sure.  He should go check with his regular doctor in the morning.  We went home at 4am.  We got a few hours of sleep and DH felt much better (he was all juiced up on drugs from the ER) so he went out and shoveled our driveway and drove to his Mom's house to pick up a few things and shovel her driveway also.

On the 8th at about 4:30am he wakes up in terrible pain and wants to go see his regular doctor who doesn't open until 7am.  So we went to go see her.  She confirms that DH has pleuracy and prescribes him with more pain medication.  I ask her if it is okay for DH to fly because we had a vacation planned the following day and she said that would be fine.

On the 9th DH is still in pain, but managing it with pain meds so we hopped on our plane and headed to Michigan.  When we arrived in Detroit DH reported that he was pretty dehydrated so we attempted to rehydrate him as much as we could.

DH's pain was increasing and he thought perhaps it was from him getting "backed up" caused by the pain medications, so we got him some laxatives to see if that would help.

By the 12th DH was miserable and his sister who is a nurse insisted that he see a doctor as soon as possible.  So I got on the phone to find out about our medical coverage and found that we were only allowed to go to the ER (not an urgent care center) so we took him there.

I'm now going to switch to my Face book posts...

Jan 12
DH has been admitted and has pneumonia. At least two days in the hospital for DH and that means I get to figure out how to rearrange our non-changeable flights! :o Wish me luck and pray for DH please.

Jan 14
had a very busy day today. I went to see DH in the hospital until noon - helped him shave. Then I drove to Detroit to return the rental car (why doesn't Thrifty have someplace closer?). Then I went back to the hospital with BIL and helped DH eat his lunch (yeah, it was very LATE!) they were doing another procedure at lunch time...and finally got home after 7:30...I'm sooooo tired!

also Jan 14
My husband has very lousy tastes in all inclusive resort vacations!

Jan 15
this morning's update is that DH is doing better, but will still stay in the ICU for today. Bummer, I was hoping that he could get moved to Acute Care soon. I know they're still pumping him full of antibiotics and all, but hoped they were done looking at his heart. :(

also Jan 15
the nurse that I never saw LIED! I called this am for DH's update and she said that DH was doing better but wouldn't be moved. (his nurse yesterday was much better at giving me reports) I get to the hospital and they tell me they are moving him. We're now sitting in his new room where I can play on the computer! He's got less stuff hooked up to him too.

Jan 16
DH had a really good day today. They got him up and he walked the hall almost by himself. He is breathing really well on his own. At one point the nurse didn't hook up his O2 right and he was up and moving around with just room air, his puls/ox was at 82. He still gets winded when he up and moving around...but with... his O2 turned on he can keep his pulse/ox at 98.

Jan 17
Dh is still improving, but last night was very rough for him...had a bit of a scare when he had chest pain on the one side...was probably just his lung expanding, but they aren't quite sure. They do know it wasn't a blood clot. Course his roommate bugging the nurse for pain meds (trying to stock up for his release!) ...and breaking up with his girl friend in the middle of the night didn't help. (Dh's extra project: cleaning out his electric razor)

Jan 18
Today was frustrating. Dh had been doing something and then got a nosebleed...so he took off his oxygen to get that cleared up. Well the nurses choose that time to check his pulse/ox and of course it was down. So the nurses PANICKED and didn't allow him to do ANYTHING today! The rest of the day his pulse/ox was 98 ...and the respiratory therapist even turned his O2 down. sigh!

I'm sorry that it has been easier to update my Facebook...I'm staying at my BIL's house and for some odd reason his wireless router won't send it's signal to my computer...so I have to use my SIL's computer at the house...I can use my computer at the hospital...but today DH decided he was well enough to check his email...  there went all my computer time!  sigh!